Tytus

The name Tytus comes from the Latin Titus, an old Roman praenomen worn by emperors and senators. Its deepest origin is uncertain, and Roman scholars themselves argued over it. What stuck to the name over time was the sense given in Polish as dostojny, szanowany, a bearing of honour that people heard in the Latin titulus, "title." That association came later than the name itself.

In Poland the name found real weight in Tytus Chałubiński, the nineteenth-century physician who did much to open Zakopane to the world. Saint Titus, companion of Paul and bishop of Crete, gives the name its main imieniny on 26 January.

And then there is the chimp. Generations of Polish children grew up with Tytus de Zoo from the comic Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek, a monkey learning to be human. So one name holds a Roman honorific and a cartoon ape. A boy called Tytus today meets both.

The English meaning stays plain: a title of honour.